Jeff Mitchell: Salinas Council to make call today on tax ballot measure

Jeff Mitchell

After a ton of talking, posturing, chin scratching and hand-wringing, the Salinas City Council is finally ready to step up and give formal direction to staff as to what kind of tax measure it wants to place on the November ballot.

The council meeting, which starts at 4 p.m. today at City Hall, 200 Lincoln Ave., will, naturally, feature a time for public comment. This is where you all come in and have your say.

My guess is that the council majority will follow Finance Director Matt Pressey's recommendation to place a 1-cent general tax measure with a 15-year sunset clause and with a citizens' oversight board.

Pressey is also recommending placing a measure to modernize the city's antiquated utility user's tax.

Once city staff receives direction from the council, the matter will come back before the seven-member panel for a final vote in the next few weeks. In order to pass legal muster, no less than five of the seven members of the council will need to vote in the affirmative on that motion.

New Dome Live! coming Wednesday

Recently we had an opportunity to sit down and chat with Cal State University Monterey Bay President Eduardo M. Ochoa.

This gentlemen is a true educational leader, and you can take it to the bank that he's going to put CSUMB on the map.

Tune in at noon Wednesday at TheCalifornian.com to watch the interview.

Join us for April 23 elections forum

Please save the date and make plans to join us April 23 at the National Steinbeck Center for an elections forum on select competitive races featured in the June 3 primary election.

The Californian and our friends at the National Steinbeck Center will co-host the free event, which will start at 6:30 p.m. and run to about 9 p.m..

The program will feature candidates in a number of competitive races being asked a series of questions from working reporters.

Audience members, too, will be able to submit written questions at the event - or even right now if you want to. Just send your query to me at the email address below.

Each candidate will be given a chance to provide a brief opening and closing statement.

Although the program is still being organized, we hope to bring in our friends at KION-TV and Entravision. We'll have more details on our media partners at a later time.

For now, we plan to focus on the three-candidate Board of Supervisors Seat No. 2 race, the four-man race for Monterey County sheriff and Seats Nos. 3 and 10 for Monterey County Superior Court, which feature two candidates each.

If you're a candidate for any of these offices, please consider yourselves formally invited to the program.

If you're a concerned voting citizen, this will be a chance to really get to know the folks you'll be considering once you get into that voting booth.

Jeff Mitchell covers Salinas Valley politics and government. Under the Dome, an opinion column, appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in print and online. Email him at jemitchell@

thecalifornian.com.

For quick political hits, check out Under the Dome - The Blog, available most every day at www.theCalifornian.com.

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Jeff Mitchell: Salinas Council to make call today on tax ballot measure

After a ton of talking, posturing, chin scratching and hand-wringing, the Salinas City Council is finally ready to step up and give formal direction to staff as to what kind of tax measure it wants